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PRIVATIZATION. No one uses this word to explain the obvious reason our electricity bills are so high in Ontario. Canadians in other provinces are paying less for electricity. Critics of the high bills blame “government incompetence” as the main reason for the high bills. No critics use the “P” word.

Paul Kahnert, a retired Toronto Hydro worker, has written several articles on the reason for Ontario’s high electrical bills. Two of the articles are linked below. He wrote the first article on June 9, 2014, before the provincial election on June 12. He wrote the second article on February 22, 2017. The second article says the same as the first, but goes into more detail.

According to Kahnert, Adam Beck pushed for publicly owned electricity in 1905. Beck was a Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament. Beck had the support of industry and business leaders who were tired of “being gouged by private power producers.”

Everything was fine until 1998 when Conservative Premier Mike Harris, promising lower electricity rates, started privatizing electricity. The Conservatives dodged the question, “How do you get lower rates when you add in profits to generators, profits to distributors, profits to retailers, dividends to investors and commissions to commodities brokers?”

In 2003, when he was elected, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty promised to reverse what Mike Harris had started. Premier McGuinty broke his promise and continued the privatization process. And Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne is still continuing to the privatization process.

So now we are once again “being gouged by private power producers.” Paul Kahnert is the only one I have seen use the “P” word as the reason for the gouging. The mainstream media and politicians don’t mention the “P” word as the reason. Why?

We always hear how privatization will lower costs, yet it hasn’t so far. The public always ends up paying more when something is privatized.